Tom Trush | Phoenix copywriter and marketing strategist

The Truth About How Your Occupation Affects Your Marketing

When it comes to effectively marketing your product or service, your prospects have little concern for your occupation.

They don’t care if you’re a lawyer … real estate agent … website developer … auto mechanic … bookkeeper … doctor … caterer … whatever …

Heck, I’m certain no one cares I’m a direct-response copywriter and marketing strategist.

Whether you’re writing copy, coming up with lead-generating strategies or networking with other professionals, you share an occupation with every person who actively markets a business.

You’re a problem solver.

The truth is purchasing decisions are not based on occupations … or company names … or logo designs … or mission statements … or the number of abbreviations after your name. Look around, however, and you’ll see plenty of self-centered marketing messages focused on these items.

What wasted opportunities!

Prospects hunt for people who can solve their problems. The more your marketing message focuses on your prospects’ nagging needs, the more often you’ll receive responses. So showcase your expertise by offering information that details solutions.

There’s no easier way to separate yourself from your competition.

Let me explain …

Imagine you want to sell your home and a real estate agent comes to your front door. She hands you a business card with the usual information (i.e., company name, agent’s name, phone number, e-mail address and website) and tells you she’s sold many homes in your neighborhood. As she walks away, the agent encourages you to contact her when you’re ready to list your house.

Shortly after the first agent leaves, another one shows up. Instead of a business card, she gives you a handout titled, “5 Simple Strategies for Quickly Selling Your Home in a ‘Down’ Market.” In addition to the tips, the report includes specific examples and detailed testimonials of how homeowners in your neighborhood used the strategies to sell their properties. You also see several statements encouraging you to view the agent’s website for more free tips.

Which website are you more likely to visit?

Which real estate agent established greater credibility?

Which real estate agent is more likely to get your business?

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Marketing Message: The Headline Genie Who Grants Prospects’ Wishes

(If you live in the Phoenix area and would like to see how to quickly and easily attract more local leads online, be sure to read the announcement at the bottom of this post.)

With proper preparation, today’s copywriting tip won’t take you long to learn or incorporate into your next marketing piece.

What I’m about to reveal is the easiest way to write powerful headlines that capture attention and keep prospects reading your marketing materials.

But first we must lay some groundwork by identifying your target prospects. So who is your market? What are their ages and gender? What is their income level?

Also, what are their biggest concerns, emotions and needs? And what information or help do they need to deal with them?

Once you understand the answers to these questions, you’re ready to perform some genie magic. So begin by envisioning yourself having a face-to-face conversation with your ideal prospect.

Now, just like the genie who appears from Aladdin’s lamp, imagine telling that prospect you can grant any wish related to your business.

Here’s what you might say:

“If I could use my product or service to grant you one wish, what would it be?”

Your prospect’s response is what is sometimes labeled a “hidden benefit.”

Ted Nicholas, a legendary copywriter, recently revealed he used this same strategy to sell more than 200,000 copies of his book, “How to Form Your Own Corporation Without a Lawyer for Under $75.” His headline read …

The Ultimate Tax Shelter

I recently used this technique to come up with a headline for an IT staffing services company …

Get the Guaranteed Best IT Professionals Whenever You Need Them

Easy stuff, right?

Once you have your “hidden benefit,” make sure it’s the first copy your prospects see when reading your marketing materials.

*** Attention Phoenix-Area Business Owners and Professionals ***

Andy Renk and Jon Ward (you’ve seen me mention these Internet marketing experts many times in previous e-mails) are holding another one of their local online profits workshops tomorrow night in Scottsdale.

During this private 90-minute training, you’ll find out how to harness the true power of the Internet for your business and discover…

• How to make online marketing your “secret weapon”
• Why most business websites fail
• The four key questions every site must answer
• How to stop worrying about SEO and get traffic the easy way
• And much more

If you’re a NetworkingPhoenix.com member, you can attend the workshop for free. Go to http://localprofitsonline.com today to get all the details.

You’ll find more simple strategies for creating compelling headlines on page 40 of my new book, The Reluctant Writer’s Guide to Creating Powerful Marketing Materials: 61 Easy Ideas to Attract Prospects and Get More Customers. There I give you a free online tool that offers an ever-growing list of proven headline formulas. Grab your book today at http://www.powerfulmarketingmaterials.com.

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7 Quick Ways to Eliminate Doubt from Your Marketing Copy

Your prospects become suspicious the instant they start reading your marketing materials.

The reaction is only natural. After all, when you’re a prospect and you’re asked to take action on an offer, your internal skeptic alarm goes off, too.

Right?

So you realize you only have a few seconds to reverse your prospects’ thought process and get them on your side. The challenge is figuring out how to complete this transformation.

Here are 7 quick ways to eliminate your prospects’ doubt when they read your marketing copy:

1. Address doubts immediately. The longer you let suspicions linger, the more you risk your prospects fleeing to another marketing piece that better addresses their concerns. When you deal with objections, you become someone who helps rather than sells.

2. Add personality. Your copy isn’t just words on a page. If you want interaction, you must view the words you write as a friendly conversation. Prove to your prospects why you’re just like them and you’ll gain credibility.

3. Write the way your prospects talk. When you “speak” their language, you quickly establish a level of trust. Long words and jargon can create confusion and, in some cases, a sense of inadequacy.

4. Support your claims with proof. Testimonials, statistics and case studies go a long way in reducing doubt. Your prospects want to know people just like them were successful using your product or service.

5. Encourage involvement. Ask for opinions or responses to questions. Give prospects a checklist to help determine desires. You can even lead them to an audio, video or photo to engage their senses.

6. Give an escape route. This means making your offer risk-free. A guarantee or trial period shows confidence in what you offer and allows prospects to test your product or service on their own terms.

7. Deliver value. When you give freely, your prospects will feel more inclined to return the favor. There’s no substitute for making them feel like you truly care about their needs.

Keep in mind, regardless of how well you write your copy, you’ll never get prospects to do anything they don’t want to do. All you can do is capitalize on an unfilled need or desire.

For 6 items that will boost believability in your marketing copy, check out page 45 of my new book, The Reluctant Writer’s Guide to Creating Powerful Marketing Materials: 61 Easy Ideas to Attract Prospects and Get More Customers. The fifth item creates a contagious reaction that causes prospects to enjoy buying from you. This item won’t cost you anything and I guarantee you have it in your marketing arsenal right now. Get the book today at http://www.powerfulmarketingmaterials.com.

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Marketing Message: How Well Do You Know Your Prospects’ Problems?

You already understand the importance of immediately capturing attention when persuading prospects to take action on your marketing materials.

After all, until you have eyeballs glued to your copy, anything you write is essentially invisible.

The way you attract attention comes down to two choices — you can write something your prospects know is true (but won’t necessarily admit) or you can write something that worries them.

But here’s the catch …

You can’t write anything relevant unless you know your prospects’ problems. Before you sit in front of your keyword or put pen to paper, you need a vivid picture of what keeps your target audience awake at night.

Once you have this knowledge, you can create copy that speaks directly to them. What you write then becomes more believable because your message isn’t just words on a page. Instead, it becomes a one-on-one conversation with a real human being.

The payoff comes when you zero in on something that resonates with a high percentage of your audience.

When I begin working with a new client, I use a questionnaire to help determine the copy’s direction. The overall theme almost always comes from my fourth question:

What are your prospects’ biggest concerns, emotions and needs? What information or help does he/she need to deal with them?

What I’ve discovered is most people don’t do enough to learn about their prospects and customers. As a result, their copy becomes force-fed, self-serving information that offers little benefit to readers.

Your own e-mail list (which you should be actively building on your website) makes gathering knowledge about your prospects quick and easy. You can send out a survey and get direct feedback. Also, if you frequently communicate with your list and share knowledge, your subscribers will tell you what’s causing them trouble.

Another option is my go-to tool for gathering insight about prospects — Amazon.com. When you visit the site, scan the reviews of popular books related to your industry. You’ll find word-for-word explanations of your prospects’ most pressing problems.

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Small Business Marketing: Has This Ever Happened to You?

Has this ever happened to you?

You and your co-workers get together to discuss a problem. The goal is to gather everyone’s input and come up with a collective solution.

After you discuss the issue for a little bit, the brainstorming begins.

You hear the first idea. So you scan the room for approval and you see some head-nodding.

You must admit, the suggestion sounded pretty good. Within a few seconds, someone else chimes in with another idea … then comes another … and another … and another …

You sense the momentum building. However, with each idea comes greater discomfort because you realize you still haven’t added anything to the conversation.

As the minutes tick by, you wonder if anyone else notices your silence.

You strain your brain to suggest the next big idea. But the more you think, the harder it is for you to come up with anything relevant — much less original.

If you operate a one-person business like me, you’ve likely experienced this same problem … but only worse. After all, when you’re stuck for ideas, there’s no one else to turn to.

When I launched my book, The Reluctant Writer’s Guide to Creating Powerful Marketing Materials, last Friday, I told you how it includes 61 easy ideas you can use to attract prospects and get more customers. Ideas such as …

• A copywriting weapon that allows you to penetrate a prospect’s mind, eliminate negative assumptions and create an intense desire for your product or service (page 111).

• The unspoken secret the most successful marketers (and clever business owners) use to quickly establish themselves as industry experts (page 78). (This tip works especially well if you have a new business.)

• The easiest way to instantly eliminate sales-killing objections using a single sentence (page 118). You get the exact formula — all you have to do is fill in the blanks.

• How to use only 2 words in your headlines to lure prospects to your marketing materials like a swarm of bees on a threatened hive (page 91).

The truth is coming up with ideas for your marketing materials is tough. Even more challenging is creating copy for your marketing materials when you’re not confident in your writing abilities. That’s why I also explain …

• The ideal number of sentences, syllables and “personal words” you should use in your ads to ensure your product or service is easy to remember and appealing to buy (page 36). (Hint: Your best prospects will almost never read copy-starved ads.)

• A shortcut for writing response-boosting benefits that target your prospects’ emotions and make them feel like your product is even better than what you claim (page 65).

• How to use 8 biologically programmed human desires in your copy to drive your prospects’ buying decisions (page 168). These desires are impossible to ignore because your prospects are born with them.

As you can imagine, these ideas are an extremely small sample of what you’ll find in the 214-page book. To try out all the material risk-free (see my guarantee below), click the “Get the Book” button at http://www.powerfulmarketingmaterials.com.

Remember, if you don’t feel like you’ve collected any new ideas after reading The Reluctant Writer’s Guide to Creating Powerful Marketing Materials, just let me know. I’ll rush you a refund for the price of the book. So you’ll get a $19.95 check … and you can even keep the book.

How’s that for fair?

Keep in mind, this guarantee isn’t for 30 days, 60 days or even 120 days. If at ANY time you feel like you haven’t generated new ideas as a result of my tips, tricks and techniques — even if you don’t read the book until 3 years from now — contact me and I’ll send you a refund.

Since releasing The Reluctant Writer’s Guide to Creating Powerful Marketing Materials: 61 Easy Ideas to Attract Prospects and Get More Customers, 114 copies have already been shipped out. Get yours today at http://www.powerfulmarketingmaterials.com.

If you want multiple copies of the book to give to your employees or clients, send me an e-mail at tom (at) writewaysolutions (dot) com l and I’ll give you a discount code you can use at checkout.

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